Threats to an Alaska Native community

In the remote Alaskan village of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, students are allowed ten excused absences a year for subsistence purposes, mainly hunting. “If you don’t do livelihood activities, you die,” the school principal says in the documentary “One with the Whale,” which aired on public television this week as part of Independent Lens.

Directed by Peter Chelkowski (whose credits include the NatGeo series “Life Below Zero: First Alaskans”) and environmental journalist Jim Wickens, the film is about many things at once: climate change; poverty; parents concerned about their teenagers; trying to maintain traditions amid dwindling resources; and online bullying by activists when 16-year-old Chris Apassingok successfully hunts his first whale.

“One with the Whale” primarily follows the Apassingok family, but also provides a broader context of life in Gambell, where the population is primarily Yup’ik indigenous and numbers fewer than 700. Everything has to be flown in and that is expensive. When Mom goes grocery shopping at the Gambell Native Store, she says they spend between $300 and $500 on food per week. She holds up a box of Minute instant rice: $11.29. A six-pack of toilet paper costs $13. There is a shortage of fresh produce. As a result, more than 80% of their diet comes from subsistence hunting. A whale can feed the entire village for months.

Although there is snow everywhere (no cars in sight, only four-wheelers and snowmobiles), Chris’s father is concerned about the lack of ice while out on the water. “The walrus and the seal migrate with the ice. Without that ice there is no game and no food.”

We hear that internet service came to Gambell quite recently, but almost everyone on camera has a smartphone. In 2017, Chris caught his first whale and the photos were shared on Facebook. Locally he was celebrated as a supplier. But hundreds of thousands of hateful messages and death threats poured in from people outside the community, mostly followers of Paul Watson, known for the reality series “Whale Wars.” A teacher at Chris’s school is baffled: “It’s insane to tell a 16-year-old in rural Alaska – where suicide rates are higher than any other part of the country – to kill himself.” The experience has a visible effect on Chris, who is sweet and crazy, but becomes withdrawn and gloomy. He doesn’t want to talk about it to the filmmakers or to his mother, and it’s unclear whether he felt like he could talk to anyone about his feelings. This is a consistent outcome in online bullying, with the added subtext that this close-knit community, new to the downsides of social media, is also experiencing loss. (The filmmakers focus specifically on Gambell’s people and do not interview Watson.)

“Chris is just doing something his ancestors have been doing for thousands of years,” says the school director. “It’s not like they’re pulling hundreds of whales out of the ocean, like in Japan. According to the whaling commission, they are allowed to catch two whales a year, and that feeds the community.” Without that meat in the freezer, he adds, the village could die out.

It’s complicated. The Apassingoks are a loving family who are concerned for Chris’s well-being while also dealing with universal issues surrounding uncertainty and insecurity. But the filmmakers leave certain details frustratingly vague. What is the texture and rhythm of daily life in Gambell? How do Chris’s parents make money? What jobs are available on the island? Are hunters more cautious about sharing photos? How is Chris doing now, all these years later? What mental health services are available in a village of this size?

In the film, the eldest daughter Nalu is 18 and eager to leave. “I’m not completely gay,” she says with a little giggle, “but I’m not really into boys either.” She’s still working on it – or at least how to talk about it. Eventually she moves to Anchorage, where there are bowling alleys, Vietnamese restaurants and a girlfriend. But sometimes she gets homesick. “It’s amazing not only that we survived for thousands of years, but that we thrived – at least until the white man came along. Paul Watson’s attack on my brother is actually nothing new. It started with the Yankee whalers, who decimated our whale population and nearly starved us. Then came the missionaries, with their crosses and boarding schools. “Kill the Indian, save the man,” I think that was their motto. Now they’ve brought us climate change. So Paul Watson and his minions are just the latest in a long line of (villains).”

It’s worth noting that the filmmakers capture a successful whaling hunt on camera, if you’d rather not see that. Like any worthwhile documentary, “One With the Whale” is a window into the lives of others, and it is handled with as much respect and sensitivity as you would expect from filmmakers outside the community.

“One with the whale” – 3 stars (out of 4)

Where to watch: 7:30 PM Wednesday on WTTW World as part of Independent Lens. (It rebroadcasts at 12:30am and 8:30am Thursday and 11am Saturday)

Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.